


Swept Out to Sea

by mademoiselle_cynique



Category: American Revolution RPF
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, doctor laurens, gay scientist gets sad about god, he just fucks off to the caribbean to avoid his dad, john never goes to war, johns also a naturalist, mermaid au, mermaid hamilton
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 15:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10027262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mademoiselle_cynique/pseuds/mademoiselle_cynique
Summary: John Laurens is a young man who grew up in Charlestown, South Carolina with an affinity for studying natural life. After studying medicine against his father's will, he started a life in St. Kitts and Nevis, where his hobby of documenting the plants and animals lead to his discovery of something he regarded to be just in the fantasy realm of sailors and Greek writers: a mermaid by the name of Alexander.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This chapter is pretty short, but I'm going to try to get a longer one up next week.  
> My instagram is mademoiselle.cynique and my tumblr is mademoiselle-cynique  
> This takes place sometime during the American Revolution, which will probably be mentioned in later chapters.  
> Thanks for reading. :)

They say blood is thicker than water, and while that may be true to some people, that their blood relatives are stronger to them than anything else in the world. But, truly, this isn’t the proverb. In full, it goes: the blood of the covenant is stronger than the water of the womb. This is certainly much more accurate for many more people. This would be the reason why your partner for life isn’t your mother, isn’t your father, and isn’t your sibling. It is someone you find yourself in life, who many times is very contrary to you and every single person you have met before, especially your family.  
This was the case for John Laurens, a tall, blond, muscular young man who grew up in Charlestown, South Carolina. He’s always been a peculiar boy with an affinity for animals and drawing said animals. As a child, he had a larger interest in that than he did over normal things boys did: wrestling, bullying girls, and playing war. Some of his family think it was this peculiar streak in him that lead him to forge his home in the West Indies. Though, it seems most accurate to believe that his other interests in medicine and helping others in need lead to his large move to the islands.  
After studying medicine against his father’s wishes, the man decided to start a life in the Caribbean Sea, despite the risks. He moved to the island of St. Kitts and Nevis, residing in a flat above a shop that he planned on converting into a doctor’s office. Due to his father’s work as a politician, Laurens found it easy to purchase the things that were necessary to start up his business. He kept an open service policy, agreeing wholeheartedly to help even blacks who were in need due to the rampant sickness that took over the small islands.  
However helpful he was with medicine, it always seemed what he was truly passionate about was what he did on his free time. John would spend his free time in a small rowboat he had purchased with a sketchbook and pastels, studying the animals and plants that grew and lived on the island. He proudly pronounced himself as a naturalist; this was quite an odd thing at the time, seeing as science was still seen as a very odd and controversial concept to many. However so, he planned to someday publish a book on his findings and spread his knowledge across the world to other like minded people. They were beautiful creatures that God had put on the planet for him to study, he believed, however difficult his relationship to God was.  
It was this hobby of sorts that lead him to be in his boat on a particularly hot day, sketching a magnificent frigatebird. At the time, he focused on the red throat of the bird that strangely seemed to puff out. He assumed it was a male and one that was flaunting itself during mating season. He wore a dirty, loose, off-white blouse with beige breeches, both having slight stains due to his sweat. His long, blonde hair was tied back messily as he worked, paying attention to what he convinced himself was nothing but the bird, but what was also the sounds of the waves, the rocking of the boat, the sweat that ran down his back, and the burn that was developing on his neck.  
This hyperfocus on the sensations surrounding him leads to him quite quickly hearing the odd sounds around him, as if someone were swimming. His focus was completely broken, a few pastels falling to his feet and rolling with the waves. Unbeknown to dear John, this would mark one of the largest changes to his life, even larger than when he decided to cut off his father completely. At first, he saw nothing, and the noise stopped, but as he turned his head, he noticed the top of the head floating a few yards behind him in the water. The face was that of a very effeminate man, surrounded with wet, curled locks.  
Laurens had been too confused by the person’s sudden appearance to notice the glaringly obvious features that certainly weren’t human on the person who floated ways away from his small boat. Perhaps he could have noticed the scales on his cheeks, or the blue hues to his complexion, or the odd fin-like ears that poked through his mess of hair. It seemed that the man was too focused on the boy’s beauty to focus on how peculiar he truly was.  
The blond stood up on his boat, wobbling a bit before keeping his stance. Truly this was unnecessary, but the doctor wasn’t focused on rash actions when there was an odd person who had somehow completely escaped his notice until a few instances prior. However excited he was, the other person was gone as soon as he had gained his balance, leaving him wondering how this man could possibly swim that fast and who the hell he was. Most importantly, though, he thought of those eyes. The piercing blue with the most amazing purple tones, filled with energy and curiosity. Those eyes would haunt his dreams with the sweetest of fantasies, surely. He hadn’t even witnessed the fair creature’s full body, yet he was caught completely awe-struck by those orbs that gazed his way.  
Despite being a man of logic and science, the great enlightened thinkers he studied during his time in Europe failed to give him any reason to believe this wasn’t some work to punish him for his actions against God, leaving him aching for this beautiful man that he had seen in a horribly amazing bout of infatuation.

**Author's Note:**

> Charlestown is the historical spelling of Charleston.  
> The West Indies is the historical name for the Caribbean.  
> A naturalist was a biologist of the time. They were usually doctors who were able to go to tropical places and document the animals there.  
> The enlightened thinkers is a reference to the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, which both had major effects in the time.


End file.
